Foods That Burn Fat: Breakfast Edition

Ever wake up on a Sunday and start to regret some of the choices you made over the weekend? You might regret what you ate, not getting a workout in, maybe feeling a little hungover? We’ve all been there — at least I know I have…many, many times. You start thinking, “Ok, tomorrow is Monday, so I can get started back on the right foot. I’ll do some meal prep today, make sure I work out tomorrow…” etc. etc. When we’re doing the Monday re-start, it’d sure be nice to know that what we’re putting together to eat that week is going to give us the best chance to be successful, wouldn’t it? Agreed. Check out these five foods that burn fat – and you can have in your system by 8:00 tomorrow morning!

Five Foods That Burn Fat:

1. Eggs: An obvious, classic breakfast food. These little beauties are high in protein, which helps build muscle. Know what building muscle does? It helps you burn more calories, which can help eliminate fat – yay! There’s an ongoing debate about whole eggs vs. egg whites. I usually have two whole eggs in the morning, and don’t even think about it — but I don’t have doctor-ordered cholesterol restrictions. If you’re worried about the yolk, but want more protein….use 1-2 whole eggs in combination with more egg whites. That way the whites aren’t completely tasteless.

2. Lean Protein: Lean meats (think boneless/skinless chicken breast and/or turkey) are obviously high in protein, which would have a similar impact to that of eggs — but they ALSO have a high thermogenic effect. They require about 30% of the calories they contain in order to digest them at all. So, for example, if you had 200 calories of chicken breast, your body would need to burn 60 calories in order to digest it…which leaves only 140 calories still available. This keeps your metabolism rolling, and gives you a greater chance of achieving the caloric deficit needed in order to burn fat and lose weight.

3. Coconut Oil: Coconut oil has become increasingly popular over the past few years. You can use it to replace butter in nearly any recipe, throw it in the pan to fry up your food, or put it in your coffee — which is a delicious option we’ll talk about some more in a few minutes 🙂 . It’s a fat though – so how does it burn…itself? Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids which are utilized by the body in a way similar to that of carbohydrates — for energy! Instead of being stored as a fatty acid, it’s used up right away by the body, which boosts metabolism, and promotes fat loss.

4. Cinnamon: Fair enough — this isn’t a food. Without getting into technicalities on a Sunday, let’s just talk about what this delicious spice can do for you. Cinnamon helps regulate blood glucose levels, which leaves you with more energy, a boosted metabolism, and helps control cravings later on in the day. Burns fat AND gives you a will power boost? Yes please.

5. Coffee: If you’re anything like me, you were so hoping this one was coming next. I L-O-V-E coffee, so much. I start to love it even more when it promotes an increased metabolic rate that will help me burn fat, and achieve my goals. Here’s the trick — you can’t be throwing sugary creamers, whip cream and syrup in there, and expect to get where you want to go. Come on now. I will, however, soon reveal my favorite way to have coffee, and not even miss the creamer!

Foods That Burn Fat…For Breakfast!

Alrighty – you have the coveted list of foods that burn fat. What if I told you, you could have all of these metabolic boosting, fat burning, foods in your system before your day even gets started? It’s easy to do, and pretty damn delicious, too.

Let’s start with the food itself. One of my favorite breakfasts is an open face omelet with a healthy dose of lean protein in there. You can see one of my recent concoctions to the right — slightly resembles pizza, which does not boost your metabolism or promote fat loss in any way. This beauty is simply two whole eggs scrambled, and fried up. I also browned up some 93/7 lean ground turkey seasoned with some salt, pepper, sage, and thyme, and sauteed with bell peppers, red onion and power greens. I’ll be honest — I do not like greens in or around my eggs, but I keep trying….and it looks pretty, haha. You can never have too many greens. Throw some hot sauce on there (Bonus: also a metabolism booster), and you have yourself a fat burning, open-faced omelet.

Eggs: Check!

Lean Meats: Check!

Bonus – Hot Sauce: Check!

Time for the GOOD Stuff!

Let’s talk coffee 🙂 In order to get the health benefits coffee has to offer, we typically need to just leave it alone. No cream, no sugar — black. To be honest, I much prefer my iced coffee (often as my pre-workout beverage of choice) this way. However, in the morning – especially cold mornings – I like a nice hot cup of coffee. I like my hot coffee, sweet, so going with straight up, black coffee was a tough transition for me to make.

The good news is, there’s a great way to make your coffee delicious, and even more apt to ignite those fat burners, and get you ready to go for the entire day. You may have heard of the bulletproof coffee craze, with everybody putting grass-fed butter in their coffee – with the hopes of feeling satisfied longer, reducing cravings, having more energy and being more focused throughout the day. This is the same idea — but we’re going to replace the butter with coconut oil! Throw in a little stevia, with some of that metabolism boosting cinnamon, toss it all in the NutriBullet (or whatever blender you have)…and we have a winner on our hands.

Coconut Oil Coffee – Recipe

6-8 oz. Black Coffee

1 packet Stevia

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1-2 shakes of Cinnamon

1. Brew coffee, and pour it into your favorite mug first – this way you won’t make too much in the blender. Pour into blender.

2. Add 1 Tbsp. of coconut oil. I use Kirkland, because it tastes like coconut, so it adds a sweet element, but it’s just as good with unflavored coconut oil.

3. Add Stevia and Cinnamon to taste.

4. Blend! This is the real trick that will make your coffee frothy and delicious. No stirring!

5. Pour back into your favorite mug, and enjoy — the taste, your increased energy and focus, reduced cravings AND all of that fat burning awesomeness 🙂

Coffee: Check!

Coconut Oil:Check!

Cinnamon: Check!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

How’s that for a way to start your week off right? A delicious open-faced (or closed — up to you) omelet and frothy cup of coffee that are going to promote muscle growth and fat loss — getting you even closer to reaching your goals! You can kiss all of those regrettable weekend decisions goodbye with a revved up metabolism, and fresh start to the week. You got this!

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Do you usually eat these types of foods that burn fat? Leave a comment below if you have any questions, or you gave the Coconut Oil Coffee a try — notice any difference?? Let me know!

5 Responses

I rarely ever eat breakfast so this will be something I may gave to try to do. When you say you add power greens with your open faced omelet, what greens are you using? Things like Kale or Spinach? I’m making an assumption that these are power greens since I’m guessing that means they have tons of nutrients without a high caloric count.

An awesome question! Thanks for pointing that out, haha. I use Earthbound Farms Power Greens mix — you can check that out here: http://www.ebfarm.com/products/salads/deep-green-blends-power — it’s a mix of kale, spinach and chard. You can usually find them below (or somewhere around) the pre-packaged salad mixes. They basically give you Hulk-like strength, so I think that’s why they’re called power….but it could also be the nutrients 😉 It’s definitely an awesome blend!

Well, who knew!? That was a great article. I was happy to see that I am currently practicing one or two of your recommendations already. But the coffee trick is something wild, and I need to check it out!

I’ve been using coconut oil for months now as a moisturizer, but now I’m going to take your advice and try it with cooking.

Is it possible, however, that you can overdo it a bit if you throw eggs AND lean meat together in one meal? Sure, you’ll stave off hunger, but that’s a lot of protein to churn. And a nutritionist once told me after your body burns off all the protein it can handle, the “unused” protein turns directly into fatâ€¦ or at least this is how I remember it.

You are absolutely right Diana — it’s a TON of protein to go through, and it’d be a pretty hearty breakfast to put down, especially for people who are used to eating lighter in the morning. I try to get in between 160-190g of protein each day, because of the way I exercise and my body weight, so I can use all the extra protein I can get, haha. The big three macro-nutrients we look at are proteins/fats/carbs. These make up your caloric intake for the day, so – I believe – any excess calories you have not used in a day, no matter which source they’re coming from, will be stored. So it’s important, depending on your goals, to determine what your calorie intake needs to be in order for you to cut weight, maintain your weight, or gain weight.

I would definitely be interested in hearing what the nutritionist has to say about this though – maybe I’ll learn something new! Thanks again for the great comment!

I really want to try the coconut oil coffee with cinnamon.
It sounds and looks really awesome to start the day.
I actually eat eggs for breakfast everyday and eating them make me feel good and provide energy for at least have a morning.
I really will buy the ingredients to make that coffees you suggested.
Thank you